TYNAN — With barbecue, peach cobbler and the blessings of the Texas Agriculture Commissioner, the Bee County Co-op officially opened a new business at noon here Tuesday — an oil seed crushing plant.

The $1.2-million BCCA Mill and Cube plant is the culmination of six years of planning. When it is fully operational, it should be capable of processing 50 tons of cottonseed a day, according to Co-op General Manager Aaron Salge.

“In one day, the plant will produce a little less than 45 tons of meal and five tons of oil,” Salge says. The meal will be shaped into cubes and sold as a feed supplement; the oil will be sold for further processing.

Although the plant primarily is designed to process cottonseed, Sugarek says it also can handle soybeans, flax, sesame, canola and sunflower seeds.

“I’d love to see some local farmers start sunflower crops,” he says.

Which seed will dominate depends on market and commodity forces, Sugarek says.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples told the crowd that the plant is exactly what the state needs, for farmers to cooperate to find new sources of revenue for a business constantly under threat from the weather and a volatile economy.

The plant is a good risk, says J. Lindsey Green, president of Beeville’s First National Bank, which financed the plant.

“We’re still an agriculture community,” Green says. “We saw a need for this.”

Unexpectedly, during the catered lunch, the murmur of the crowd was overshadowed by three minutes of loud noise on the plant’s metal roof.

“Look at that,” one farmer said, “the Commissioner comes and it rains.”